Solvent extraction of vegetable oils



Patented Apr. 19,- 1949 SOLVEN'l` EXTRACTION OF VEGETABLE OILS Michael W. Pascal, Shaker Heights, Ohio, as-

signor to The Sh erwin-Willla ms Company,

Cleveland, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application February 7, 1946, Serial No. 646,034

This invention relates to an improvement in the continuous solvent extraction of vegetable oils and, more particularly, to the continuous over-all counter-current solvent extraction of oils from oil-containing seeds, nuts, and beans which tend to disintegrate and produce a loose, iinely particled pulp when prepared and treated with oil solvents.

Processes for the extraction of soluble substances from Various .materials by counter-current solvent methods are well known. Such counter-current processes have been employed with considerable successior the extraction of oil from soya beans after suitable preparation, as by grinding and flaking, which eiects a fairly coarse ilaked product reasonably resistant to mechanical handling. The successful solvent extraction of oil from soya beans with conventional processes is believed to be due to both the high proportion of protein in the bean and the cellular structure of the bean. Upon heating, the cracked soya bean ibecomes plastic, permitting cracked portions of the bean to be rolled out into the form of thin curved i'lakes; such thin, curved vent without disrupting 'theI cellular structure of the thin akes.

Commercially importantl oil-containing seeds, beans, and nuts (generically .referred to hereinafter as seeds), such as linseed, cottonseed,'

castor bean, perilla, sunflower seed, hempseed, peanut, oiticica, tungnut, coconut, and the like, do not possess the physical characteristics requisite lfor y forming them into durable, thin, curved iiakes which will not disintegrate during the extraction process. Such oil-containing seeds other than soya beans simply disintegrate when treated with a solvent for the oil after mechanical grinding or crushing. In the slurry formed by such disintegrated seeds andthe miscella of oil andA solvent, a portion of the seed solids may remain in the form of more or less separate fibers (rather than as brous cellular structures) but in all cases substantial portions of the seed solids exist as small solid iines dispersed in an actual or substantially colloidal suspension. `Heretoiore such fine particles would follow the miscella directionally in a solvent extraction system. Because such ne particles would retain a large 14 claims. (ci. 26o-412.4)

amount of attached oil, special processing to remove such nes from the miscella, as by successive ltering operations would also remove substantial quantities of oil, thus defeating the puri pose of the process.

The art has long sought a practical continuous solvent extraction method for oil-containing seeds -.other than soya beans. The advantages of the solvent extraction of soya beans are many, the principal advantages being that a greater proportion of high grade oil is obtained and extraction of the oil from the solids is more nearly compl-ete. By so extracting a greater proportion of oil from'the solids, the proportion of proteins in the resulting meal is increased, thereby increasing the value of the` meal as;v cattle feed. Thus, the art has. been aware that solvent extractionof oil from oil-containing seeds other than soya beans could probably produce a greater proportion of high grade oil and a more valuable meal, if` one could rst discover a practical method of producing in the extraction system a miscella substantially free from fine solids and not requiring special processing. It is theobject of this invention to provide such a method.

In many arts, the separation of two or more solid materials is obtained by utilization of a difference in particle size, as by screening, or, where one of the materials is a liquid, by filtering in a pressure, vacuum, or centrifugal (perforate bowl) lter. In other arts, separation is obtained by utilization of differences ln the specic gravities, as by centrifuging in a solid bowl centrifuge or by allowing the heavier components to settle in a gravity settler or a mechanical thickener. l

None of the above general procedures suggested a solution to the problem of separating out the solids oi seeds which disintegrate upon contact with a solvent after suitable trituration, since the slurres so formed contain solids varying in size from discrete hulls and iibers to colloidal rines forming lfloating, indiscrete gelatinous masses having specific gravities equal to or pos- .sibly even slightly less than the specific Vgravity of the suspending miscella. In the usual pressure or vacuum filters the solids of oil-containing seed which disintegrate upon tritura'tion and contact with solvent substantially completely clog the iilter almost simultaneously with the establishment of effective filtering, due to the substantial quantity of gelatinous material in combination with discrete, solid particles in the slurry.

Likewise, the usual perforate bowl type of cen-,.

trifuge, also termed a centrifugal lter, fails by 3 nrstpassing asubstantial quantity of the fines and then rapidly clogging. Similarly, gravity or mechanical thickeners fail to eilect separation of a ground linseed slurry, for example; such thickeners are 'expected to eiiect separation of solids and liquids by a slow settling o! the solids under the influence of gravity, aided, in the case of mechanical thickeners, by the iioccule-breaking action of the rakes. In these thickeners, however, the solids of such slurries, after a slight settling, form in the miscella such a thorough system of interdispersed hulls, ilbers, and gels of colloidal nes that further settling is not obtained; rather than breaking up such occules i as are formed and allowing the miscella and the lighter iines to escape from such fioccules, the

rake tends to carry the entire system of miscella' and dispersed nes along with it. I have discovered, however, that a solid bowl centrifuge is operative to effectively separate out the suspended solids in a slurry formed by the disintegration of the seeds in question when con- -tacted by a solvent. However, I believe its operatlveness is not due, at least not initially or entirely, to the magnification of normally insignificant differences in the specific gravities of the lines and miscella, as might be expected, for the action of a linseed slurry in a mechanical thickener shows that a substantial portion of the disintegrated solids form gels or floccules which have a specific Vgravity eflectively equal to the miscella in which such solids are dispersed. Rather, I believe the operativeness oi a solid bowl centrifuge inseparating a clear miscella from such slurrles is due to the fact that both the liquid miscella and the dispersed occules are forced toward and along the wall of a solid bowl centrifuge; because of this force on the ilo'cculesthe iine particles oi prepared oil-containing seeds 4 Y cella obtained from the succeeding stage to form a slurry in which oil is extracted from the seed solids by diiluslon into the partial miscella, except, of course, that in the initial stage-the comminuted mass of seed solids may be either seeds ground into the miscella or previously Dreplred seed meal and in the final stage solvent is used instead of partial miscella, (2) centrifuging the slurry so formed in a solid bowl type of centrifuge to form two separable components, a solid free miscella and a pulp of miscella and thickened and compacted seed solids, and (3) separating the solid-free miscella from the pulp, passing the pulp to a succeeding stage (except in the nal stage) and passing the miscella to a preceding stage (except in the initial stage). While the movement of solids and partial miscella or solvent is con-current or substantially so during each stage. the overall movement, in ,my process. oi' oil-containing material (introduced at the initial stage) and solvent (introduced at the nnal stage) is thereby established as counter-current. The

Y number of repeated stages necessary may vary from two to six or more, but ordinarily I have found that three stages will extract 98% or better of the available oil. producing a residue of solids containing less than 1% of oil and a'miscella at the most clouded with only a minor amount of suspended ilne particles. Such -cloudiness in the miscella is easily removable by a simple polishing filter and the fines, causing cloudiness and so removed, are returnable to the extraction system to obtain the oil therein.

In order to explain my process more clearly. reference is made to the accompanying diagrammatic now sheet showing a series of three repeated stages of concurrent extracting, thickening, and compacting in an overall counter-current system. In the accompanying flow sheet, the several pieces of apparatus are shown by the labeled rectangles delineated in heavy solidlines, -while the light dotted line rectangles are labels lor the arrows indicating the now of materials in the system. The parallel double arrows from each mixer to a thickener and compacter simply indito follow the solvent directionally in an overall 1 then separated and move counter-current to each other in the system.

It k to be understood, of course, that my process, which is operative for the solvent extraction of dimcultly extractable seeds, such as linseed,V is abo operative for the solvent extractionA of seeds, auch as soya beans, which permit separation of seed solids from the miscella by a simple iiltering 1n carrying out my invention I repeat a series o( asmanytimesasmaybenecessaryto elect 08% or better extraction of the oil and to a residue of extracted solids containing less 1% of oil. Each such series of steps or comprises, in the main, (1) mixing, in an an oil-containing mass oi comminuted seed solids suspended in partial miscate con-current movement of liquids and solids in the slurry flowing from a mixer to a thickener and compacter; the dotted'arrows from the boxes showing seed or prepared'meaP' to the grinder-and/or mixer of the first stage indicate the alternative or conjoint use at this stage of a grinder which grinds seed into the partial miscella or a mixerwhich thoroughly disperses previously prepared seed meal into the partial At the initial stage it is preferable to grind certain seeds, such as ilaxseed or decorticated castor kernels, directly into the partial miscella obtained from the second stage, for it has been found that such practice may eli'ect a more rapid grinding of the seeds and a more thorough dispersion of the ground seed` meal 'into th`e partial miscella. Any kind of seed may, of course, be treated prior to contact with the extracting partial miscella, as by decorticating, steaming,A cooking, drying, moistening, grinding, shredding, flaking, comminuting or triturating; such prior treatment may also include the step of removing'a portion of the oil, as by expression. A

It is in the formation of the slurries in the mixers of the several stages that the oil is extracted by diiiusion into the partial miscella forming the oil-rich final miscella from which the extracted oil is later obtained. Accordingly, the mixing vessels are preferably equipped with coils, Jackets or other heating devices and insuthe extraction and 'the lower theoil content bean and heptane as the solvent, a temperature of 50 C. or higher is desirable for eillcient extraction. y

The slurry f ormed in the mixingvvessels at'the initial stage -is withdrawn to the solid bowl type of centrifuge at a rate to balance the input of seed or meal and partial miscella and to maintain an average constant volume in the mixing vessels. The solid bowl centrifuge employed is preferably of the continuous type, such as the Bird centrifously and continuously discharges both'the separatedv solid free miscella and the thickened pulp of compacted solids and miscella. One may employ other solid bowl types of centrifuges, such as the Quiroz continuous centrifuge, which continuously receives the slurry and discharges the miscella while intermittently but automatically discharging the pulp, the opeating vefliciency and production capacity of the solid bowl centrifuge decreasing, in general, as the continuity of flow through the centrifuge decreases.

The liquid fraction or miscella from the solid bowl centrifuge in the initial stage is run through .a polishing press to remove any ne suspended particles which may be lpresent in a minor armount .as cloudiness in the miscella. The fines so reugal thickener, which receives the slurry continumoved may be returned to the syste-m, at any point, preferably into the mixer inthe initial stage. The-clarified lmiscella is then treated in a fractionator by known fractionating processes,

as by heat, lusually while bubbling drysteam or inert gas therethrough and at a temperature sufv ficient to drive off the solvent in vapor form.

vThe distilled solvent vaporsare condensed and .flow to solvent storage for reuse in the system.

The thus extracted oil is withdrawn from the fractionator for use as raw oil.

The pulp separated from the oil-rich miscella in the solid bowl centrifuge in the initial stage of the system is comprised of seed solids which may contain an appreciable amount of unex.

tracted oil and oil-rich miscella, the eiect of the separation -obtained in the solid bowl centrifuge in the initial stage being to produce a substantially solid-free, oil-r-ich :miscella and notmiscella-free seed solids. It is' for vthe purpose of recovering the oil in the appreciably oil-rich pulp produced inthe initial stage that a plurality of stages are used in my system. The amount of loil extracted at any one stage depends upon a number of solubility factors, principally the effectiveness of the particular solvent employed for the oil being extracted and the proportion of extra'cting liquid (i. e. partial miscella or oil solvent) to the oil-containing meal or pulp. The proportion of meal or pulp to extracting liquid automatically .balances throughout the system, being controlled by the quantity of meal fed into the initial stage and thesolvent admitted at the final stage. The overall ratio of meal to solvent is not critical and may vary over wide limits. In practice I have found that the ratio calculated to yield a miscella of 15-30% of oil is generally satisfactory. In extracting a high consistency oil such as stor, a nal miscella of about 20% to 25% is preferred whereas witli linseed a miscella of 25-30% or even higher may be used if desired.

The higher the ratio of solvent to meal, the better the residues with a given' number of series of operations, but on the other hand, the increase in solventratio results in a greaterl amount of solvent to be evaporated in fractionating the miscella to obtain the pure oil anddrive off the solvent. For

example, with linseed meal prepared by drying,

crushing and cooking and containing 38% of oil, a feed ratio of 114 parts by weight of hexane to 100 parts by weight of meal may be employed, the

resulting miscella then containing approximately 25% oil. With decorticated castor kernels containing about 65% of oil, 260 parts of heptane to each 100 parts of kernels results in a miscella of about 20% oil.

As shown in the accompanying flow sheet of a three-stage system, pulp from the solid bowl centrifuge of the initial stage is fed into a mixer in a second stage along with an oil-dilute partial miscella obtained from the succeeding and final stage. In the slurry thus formed, th-e partial miscella is enriched with oil and the slunry is fed to the second stage solid bowl centrifuge, where the slurry is thickened and :compacted to form a less oil-rich pulp and 'an oil-enriched partial frniscella, similar to the separation of pul-p and miscella in the initial stage. The separated cilenriched partial miscella from the second stage is fed to the mixer in the initial stage andthe increasingly extracted pulp is'fed to the succeeding stage, in this instance, the final stage. As should be apparent from the arrows indicating the counter-current ow of Amiscella and pulp between stages, this described intermediate stage may be omitted altogether if a two-stage system lis desired, or successive additional intermediate stages may be added if a greater number of stages in a multi-stage system is desired. The total number of stages desirably'employed depends vupon several factors, the operating eiectiveness and eiliciency vof the Aparticular thickening and compactingv equipment employed in separating a solid-free miscella or partial miscella from the pulp produced andthe diminishing returns as affected by plant investment and operating costs, on the one hand, and solvent investment and fractionating costs, on the other.

minimum but a large volume of solvent, proportional to the volume o f oil extracted, must be employed and distilled if effective extraction is to be obtained. If more than two stages areemployed, a richer final miscella may be obtained may be valuable as cattle feed andthe like, the

nal pulp is passed through a dryer, the evaporated solvent being condensedjand returned to solvent storage for reuse in the system.

With an eillcient number of successive stages, proper solvent, preparation of the meal, temperature, and flow rates, these residual solids'shouldv run no more than 1% oil and may usually be obtained with an oil content around 0.5% or even less.

Thus', in a two-stage system, equipment and operating costs therefor are at av Any losses of solvent may be madeup by addition of new solvent to the solvent storageand the rate of ilow of solvent from solvent storele to the mixer at the unal stage is proportioned to the rate at which meal is fed into the mixer at the initial stage, as previously described. The

selection of a suitable solvent for any particular oli-containing material is more or less arbitrary. A considerable number of liquids have been proposed for use as oil or fat solvents in extraction systems, and many have considerable merit. In

commercial practice low boiling hydrocarbons or halogenated hydrocarbons, or alcohols are customarily employed. Any of they oil solvents or combinations of'solvents which work satisfactorily upon a speciilc oil-containing material in' Y ess on ilaxseed using hexane as solvent and castor bean with heptane as solvent have been given herein, I do not` limit either the oil-containing material nor the solvent to these combinations. By "hexane and heptane I intend any of the available commercial grades of these hydrocarbons or mixtures containing a substantial proportion of hexane or heptane with other related hydrocarbons present, sometimes in rather considerable amount. This invention may be modined and varied by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of my invention as deilned in the following claims. In the following claims the step of preparing the seed meal is to be understood to include the step oi grind-l ing the seeds directly into the solvent or partial miscella as well as .treating the seed, as yby trituration. prior to contacting the seed solids with the solvent orA partial miscella. Likewise, in the specification, the term "solid bowl centrifuge" is to be understood to include the continuous centrifuges in which both the miscella and pulp are continuously discharged as' well as the centrii'uges inl which the miscella is continuously dischaiged and the pulp is intermittently but yautomaticaliy discharged.

What is claimed is:

l. The multi-stage over-all counter-current solvent extraction of oil from seeds comprising the steps, in an initial stage, of dispersing oilcontaining seed solids in an extracting liquid containing a solvent for the oil to form a slurry, thickening and compacting'the seed-solids of Athe slurry upon an imperforate surface while subjecting the slurry to centrifugal force to produce a substantially solids-free miscella, and separating Said Substantially solids-free miscella from the thickened and compacted seed solids, and the miscella, 'and the further-'steps of moving pulp and extracting liquid cmmter-current between stages.

3. The method of solvent extracting oil-containing seeds comprising the stepsof trlturating the seeds to form an oil-containing mass of seed solids. treating the mass of seed solids in repeated concurrent stages. each stage comprising the steps or dispersing the solids in an extracting liquid containing a solvent for the oil to form `aA slurry and then com-pacting the seed solids of the s-lurry upon an imperforate' surface while subjecting the slurry to centrifugal force to leparate the slurry intoa substantially solids-free miscella and a compacted pulp comprised of said solids and miscella, and the further steps of moving pulp and extracting liquid counter-omen between stages.

4. The multi-stage over-all counter-currentl solvent extraction of oil from oil-containingseeds comprising the steps of triturating the seeds to -i'orm an oil-containing mass of seed solids, treating .the seed solids 1n stages by mixing the seed solids with an extracting liquid containing a solvent for the oil to form a slurry of seed solids and extracting liquid, said extracting liquid being obtained from a succeeding stage, except in the final stage, separating said seed solids from the slurry inthe initial stage by thickening and compacting theseed solids in said slurry upon an imperforate surface while subjecting the slurryy to centrifugal i'orce to separate a substantially solids-free miscella and to form a compacted pulp, separating solvent from the oil in the substantially solids-free miscella obtained from the initial stage to produce a substantially solvent and solids-free oil, in the final stage mixing said solvent with compacted pulp from a preceding stage to. form a slurry of solids and partial miscelia, separating said solids from the slurry in the ilnal stage by thickening and compacting the solids, introducing partial miscella obtained from the final stage into a preceding stage. evaporating solvent from the compacted solids obtained from the ilnal stage to produce a substantially oil and solvent free residue of seed solids, recovering said -evaporatedlsolvent and returning suchv recovered solvent to solvent to be mixed with pulp in the said final stage.`

5. The method as deilned in claim 4 in which the amount of solvent-introduced in the final stage is proportioned to the amount of seed solids introduced in the initial stage to'produce a miscella containing from fifteen to thirty percent of oil.

6. The multi-stage solvent vextraction of oil from oil-containing seeds tending to disintegrate into ne particled -pulps when triturated and further steps of moving seed solids and extracting liquid counter-current between stages.

2. The method of solvent extracting oil-containing seeds in repeated concurrent stages. comi prising in each stage the steps of dispersing triturated oil-containing seed solids in an extracting treated with solvents comprising the steps. It the initial stage, of preparing a meal of oil-rich seed solids from said oil-containing seeds and mixing said meal with partial miscella, obtained from a succeeding stage, to form a slurry, thickening and compacting the seed solids upon an imperforate surface, while'subjecting the slurry to centrifugal force, to separate the slurry into a substantially solids-free final miscella and a pulp o! seed solids and miscella; thereafter mixing a pulp of seed-solids obtained from a preceding stage andpartialmiscellairomasucceedlngstage,andV

then separating oil-depleted pulp and oil-enriched partial miscella bythickening and ecmpacting the pulp, except in the final stage m lwhich solvent, instead of` a partial miscella, is mixed with compacted pulp.

7. The multi-stage extraction of linseed oil from flaxseed comprising the steps in.the initial stage of forming an initial slurry of comminuted iiaxseed and a partial miscella comprised of linseed oil and a solvent therefor obtained from a succeeding stage, and then thickening and compacting the fiaxseed solids in said slurry upon an imperforate surface, while subjecting the slurry to centrifugal force and moving said compacted solids along said surface to separate the slurry into a substantially solids-free miscella and a compacted pulp of iiaxseed solids and miscella; thereafter mixing compacted pulp obtained from a preceding stage with the solvent to form a final slurry, separating a substantially solids-free partial mlscella while thickening and compacting the flaxseed solids in the final slurry, and regulating the amount of solvent introduced in the final slurry to the amount of meal introduced in the initial slurry to obtain from the initial slurry a miscella containing from twenty to thirty percent of linseed oil.

8. The process as defined in claim 7 in which the solvent is hexane.

9. The multi-stage extraction of castor oil from 'castor beans comprising the steps, in the initial stage of forming an initial slurry of comminuted castor beans and a partial miscella comprised of castor oil and -a solvent therefor obtained from a succeeding stage, thickening and compacting the castor bean solids in the slurry against an imperforate surface, whilel subjecting the slurry to centrifugal force, and con-tinuously moving said compacted solids along said surface to separate the vslurry into a substantially solids-free miscella and a compacted pulp of castor bean solids and miscella; thereafter mixing the compacted pulp obtained from a preceding stage with the solvent to form a final slurry in the final stage, separating a substantially solids-free partial mis.- cella while thickening and compactlng the castor bean solids in the final slurry, regulating the amount of solvent introduced in the final slurry to the 'amount of meal introducedin the initial slurry to obtain from the initial slurry a miscella containing from fifteen to twenty-ve percent castor oil, and maintaining the slurries throughout the stages at temperatures not substantially less than 50 C.

10. The process as deiined'in claim 9 in which the solvent is` heptane.

11. The art of solvent-extracting oil from oilcontaining seed lsolids comprising the steps of repeatedly treating the seed solids in successive stages. each stage comprising the steps of mixing seed solids and an extracting liquid containing ya solvent for the oil to form a slurry, separating the slurry by subjecting the slurry to impact against an imperforate surface, while subjecting the slurry to centrifugal force, to form a substantially solids-free oil-enriched liquid and a thickened and compacted pulp and continuously moving said liquid and compacted pulp in opposite directions along said surface. said process including the steps of introducing oil-rich seed meal into the initial stage and moving the solids thereof .through successive stages until removed as oil-depleted seed solids from the final stage, circulating a solvent for the oil from solvent storage into the final stage and between stages counter-current to the movement of seed solids to produce an increasingly oil-enriched miscella which is removed from the initial stage, removing solvent from the final oil-enriched miscella, and returning said removed solvent to solvent storage for recirculation.

l2. The multi-stage over-all counter-current method of extracting oil from oil-containing seeds comprising in each of a plurality of stages the steps of: (1) forming a slurry of triturated seed solids and an extracting liquid containing a solvent for the oil and (2) thickening and compacting the seed solids of the slurry upon an imperforate surface while subjecting the slurry to centrifugal force and continuously withdrawing miscella therefrom to separate the slurry into a substantialh' solids-free miscella and a thickened pulp; said method further comprising introducing seed solids into the first stage, moving thickened pulp between stages from the first stage to the final stage for repeated extraction of oil therefrom, and removing thickened pui-p from the final stage and recovering solvent therefrom to produce a substantially oil-free and solventfree residue; introducing extracting liquid into the final stage, moving a Apartial miscella of solvent and extracted oil between stages from the final stage to the first stage for repeated use as extracting liquid, removing miscella from the rst stage and separating solvent therefrom to produce a substantially solvent-free and solidsfree oil, and returning said separated solvent to the extracting stages.

13. The process as defined in claim 12 in which the oil-containing seeds are iiaxseed and the solvent is hexane.

14. The process as defined in claim l2 in which the oil-containing seeds are castor beans and the solvent is heptane.

MICHAEL W. PASCAL.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS OTHER REFERENCES Chemical and Met. Engineering, July 1943, Ddes 119 to 128.

Markley et al., Soybean Chemistry and Technology (1944) Chem. Pub. Co.. page 191. 

